Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
July 23, 2001
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

It's been a while since I wrote a report but I've been at Indian Pass Tarpon fishing for the past two weeks. Not only are there lots of fish there also aren't any computers ( or jet skis or malls or condos). It's amazing what a difference a 2 and a half hour drive down the coast makes.

Like I said; LOTS of Fish. The water over there is sort of like thin Gumbo there is so much seafood in it. While we did not catch ( as in pick up at the boat and take a scale)a fish everyday we jumped at least one and somedays as many as ten. These aren't little cutsey Tarpon either, the smallest fish we hooked was probably 'bout 75# with the biggest at 200#+. I had a lady angler hook one at 4:30 PM that she fought for over 3 and a half hours till she finally gave it to her husband. He fought it for another 20 minutes till I finally made a dive for the leader and hung on. We didn't get a scale off that one 'cause the fish was still green and the 150# leader broke when the fish went ballistic at the boat. It was getting dark and we were about 5 miles offshore of where we hooked the fish so I had to go for it. My folks didn't mind. They had already had a 85# and 130# to the boat that day for pictures and scales. AND they had jumped off 4 more !

The best fish ( they were all incredible but) was a different lady angler. She had another "small" one about 80# that jumped 15 times completely out of the water! Her husband had already caught one an hour before that was a "dud" it only jumped 3 times and I had it wired and pictures and a scale in 17 minutes. He wanted a "hot" one of his own and jumped 5 more fish after lunch.

I had one group for two days and we went tripletail fishing the 2nd day. They had a blast. We spotted 28 of the critters and caught 7 with the biggest at 18# ( the current record for this summer). Not bad for 10# trout tackle. We saw 3 fish that were 'tween 25 and 30# but there still swimming. Sight fishing is always a hoot and 'tails rank up there with the best of things to watch eat.

All my trips had a great time and I enjoyed the heck out of it too. I'm going back next month for 10 days so if you want to jump a silver giant give me a call. There are as many big tarpon in that area as anywhere else in this hemishpere and a lot fewer boats chasing them. I talked to an angler from the East coast who said he saw more tarpon in one day here then he usually saw in a week fishing S. Fla.. All the guides he was talking to wre quick to inform him that had been the slowest day of the past week.

Well i've got to put new gears and washers in about 10 reels that we destroyed so I'm off. Back to snapper fishing here tommorrow.

Capt. Larry Pentel

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